The concept of an aircraft or glider for accommodating a person so as to fly in air is old. The initial aircraft tended to be unpowered gliders, and/or otherwise configured to be launched from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. For example, a glider could be launched from a tower, wall, hill, rooftop, mountain, cliff, plateau or other suitable higher elevation. These original gliders and even the gliders of today are configured to have high glide ratios to provide a slow and safe descent from one higher elevation to a lower elevation, and land unassisted. Typically, gliders have wings with a high aspect ratio for providing the high glide ratio.
A powered aircraft capable of gaining altitude was invented, developed and flown by the Wright brothers at the famous site in Kitty Hawk, N.C. Other powered aircraft had been invented and created over the decades in the twentieth century into a wide array of aircraft for numerous applications from civilian aviation, commercial aviation, military aviation into all aspects of aerospace applications. There still exists new and commercially viable conceptual platforms and applications of aerospace, and the present invention is to provide a new aircraft platform and novel applications for a personal aircraft device (“PAD”) and a powered personal aircraft device (“PPAD”).
Ganev (U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,859) discloses a sail board configured for use both on waves and in the air. The board has a substantially fixed configuration, similar to existing fiberglass surf boards, and relies on the sail for maneuverability.
Further, sky diving including free falling and parachuting have been popular in past years. High performance parachutes have been developed for providing controlled turning, increased maneuverability and/or gliding.
The ability to provide increased performance, new maneuvers and/or completely new applications for a sky diving and flying with the personal aircraft device according to the present invention will become apparent based on the description of the present invention to be provided hereinbelow. Further, the concept of a FLYING BOARD™ or AIR BOARD™ will be described hereinbelow.